Close to the Edge
by Backward Compatible
Summary: She couldn't leave even though she wanted to; she didn't want to leave once she could. She was damaged and only the person who'd caused the deepest scars could heal them. But would staying only cause her more pain or was there a way for her to be happy? ChellDOS.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm already publishing two stories but at the moment I also don't have very much free time that I could devote to writing new chapters which is unfortunately slowing my ability to update. I know I stated at the beginning of "Competitive Testing Initiative" that that was my first fanfic, but I was only saying that for the sake of simplicity. This story you're about to read is in fact the first piece of fan fiction I've ever written; "CTI" is the first story that I started publishing.**

**I wrote five chapter for this story almost a year ago, at the end of March 2012. Due to college I couldn't find the time to finish what I had envisioned as a roughly fifteen-chapter story and once summer came along I wasn't in the right mood to write this particular story, plus I was kind of preoccupied with other things. I had originally planned to only release this story once all of it was already written, but after actually releasing a couple of chapters for other stories on this site I've changed my mind.**

**I'm going to be spacing out the release of the first five chapters so that the fifth one will come out some time during the summer when I have more time to write additional chapters. My main focus is still going to be on the two stories I already have going on, so once chapter five is out the updates for this story might be somewhat irregular. I'll pretty much be writing this story whenever I feel like it.**

**Now, before these author notes get longer than the chapter itself, I'll let you enjoy (that's my hope at least) the first piece of fan fiction I've ever written. ****Please note that this story is rated M for a variety of reasons and if you're going to be reading it please be prepared for anything.**

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"You know what my days used to be like? I just tested. Nobody murdered me. Or put me in a potato. Or fed me to birds. I had a pretty good life. And then you shower up. You dangerous, mute lunatic. So you know what? You win. Just go."

After GLaDOS had saved Chell's life by pulling her back through the portal, the girl had just lain down on the floor listening to the AI's monologue. Now the elevator doors behind her opened, ready to take the former test subject back to the surface and out of this facility which had made her life a living hell. All she needed to do now was get up and step into the elevator… but she couldn't do it.

Her entire body had been in constant agony after she'd been thrown across the room by the explosives Wheatley had used to booby-trap the Stalemate Resolution Button. A large portion of her skin felt like it was on fire, which was no doubt because of burns from the explosion itself. Chell didn't even dare to think about how severe some of the burns might be. Much more alarming however, was the fact that every time she tried to move her legs even a tiny amount, she could feel an incredibly intense surge of pain coarse through her whole body. The girl tried to gather all the strength she had left in her and disregard the pain, but after numerous attempts she was forced to admit to herself that even all the willpower she had left wasn't going to be enough to overcome the gravity of the situation, namely that she wouldn't be walking anywhere anytime soon.

_"So no walking, but what about crawling?"_

Chell glanced behind her. The elevator was only a few meters away from her. It would surely hurt like hell, but she was certain she could crawl her way to it. Moving her hands wasn't even close to being painless, although Chell knew she could tolerate the pain long enough to reach her freedom. But what if she did make it to the elevator? What then? God knows how far the nearest town – or any kind of civilization for that matter – was from Aperture Laboratories. She would never make it, and that thought started to eat away at her from the inside. This had turned out just like last time, when she had defeated GLaDOS just to be dragged to the Extended Relaxation Center by some stupid robot. She had been in too weak a state to do anything about it and now, even though the supercomputer was actually permitting Chell to leave, she was unable to do so on her own. If there was such a thing as fate, it was probably laughing its ass off watching her squirm.

What about GLaDOS? Was she aware of her former test subject's injuries? Surely it was obvious to anyone who wasn't blind that she was at least mildly hurt, but the computer probably couldn't tell just by examining Chell visually that she was actually in a much more serious condition. But what if she could tell? What if she was well aware of the situation? Chell couldn't rule out that possibility. But why would the AI have offered to let the girl leave the facility if she knew Chell would be unable to do so in her current condition? Then it dawned on her.

_"She wants to watch me suffer before she kills me. That must be it. She was never going to let me leave this cursed place. She must've already known when she pulled me from space, otherwise she would have just let me die."_

Chell had been really surprised when GLaDOS had saved her life, and now it started to make perfect sense why she'd done it. Naturally she had had some faith in the AI's word on not killing her once they had gotten rid of Wheatley, but even at her most optimistic Chell had estimated the chances of GLaDOS actually keeping her promise to be about 50-50. Not that there were many other options than to cooperate with the murderous computer since Wheatley was about to cause the whole facility to blow sky high.

The pain was starting to be too much for the girl to handle and on top of that she was feeling completely exhausted by all that had happened. She couldn't even remember when she had last eaten anything. Even her portal gun had been blown into the vastness of space. She had nothing. There was absolutely nothing left. Chell started to weep.

All this time that the girl had been lying on the floor the massive robotic body that hung from the ceiling in front of her had been watching her patiently, waiting for her to stand up and leave, but when Chell started crying its expression seemed to change to represent confusion. At least that's what it looked like to Chell. And that gave her hope. Perhaps GLaDOS didn't know after all. Perhaps she wasn't planning to kill her. Did that change anything though? Leaving meant a slow death in Chell's mind regardless of the situation. She didn't want GLaDOS to kill her either, so hopefully that was not the AI's intention. What else was there? Leave, be murdered, or… stay?

_"Stay in Aperture? No way. I'm definitely getting out of here one way or another. But maybe… she'll let me stay until I'm well enough to make it on my own on the surface. That's a big maybe though."_

Asking the humongous computer for help and some mercy started to seem like the last viable option in Chell's mind but that would mean that she'd have to finally break her silence. The entire time she had been in Aperture Chell had made sure to keep her lips sealed at all times. She had never allowed GLaDOS to have the satisfaction of making her talk. The AI had called her a mute on a couple of occasions, but Chell wasn't sure if those were just more of the computer's sarcastic remarks or if she had actually started to believe that the human was unable to speak.

The flow of tears was starting to dry up. There was still hope, although Chell would have to let GLaDOS – the one who haunted her nightmares – have the pleasure of making her talk after all this time. However it didn't seem like a huge sacrifice at this point since Chell pretty much already felt like she'd lost, even though it wasn't easy to accept that fact.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Lift that generousness of yours off my floor and get on that elevator. If you are too lazy to manage that much, I'll have you removed from this facility even if I don't have your cooperation. It's entirely up to you."

Chell understood that it was now or never and opened her mouth to respond to the AI… but nothing came out. She swallowed a couple of times and tried again.

"...an't...mo...s..." she managed to squeeze out sounding hardly louder than a mouse.

"Well, well. So, the mute lunatic **can** in fact speak. Although I already presumed as much. You'll have to speak up though, or did your extended time in relaxation cause your brain to deteriorate to such an extent that you are no longer able to form coherent sentences?"

Chell hated the AI so much, but she would have to swallow her pride and try to speak more audibly like she'd been told. It was the only thing she could do.

"I...CAN'T...MOVE...MY...LEGS," Chell said, being much louder this time. Luckily her voice seemed to be recovering bit by bit each time she spoke a little more.

"Oh, why didn't you say so earlier? Blue, Orange: it's time for you to remove the smelly garbage from my prestigious chamber."

The two bots that had been standing idly on GLaDOS's either side this entire time now moved forward. When they reached the spot where Chell was lying they both looked at her apologetically and started to gently lift her off the ground.

"GLaDOS! What's up there?" Chell asked loudly enough to be heard while trying to avoid straining her underused vocal chords more than was absolutely necessary.

"I already told you before you murdered me, remember? Even I don't know what's going on up there. Nor do I really care for that matter. My place is down here where all the science is done."

"I might not survive on the surface. There's no way I can get very far in this state."

"And? You think I care? Hah! You wanted you freedom and here it is. All I want is to see you gone. Whether you live or die doesn't matter to me, as long as you never try to return here. If you do, I **will** kill you."

"Please… Just let me stay here a couple of days until my condition improves. I **promise** to leave once I'm able. It's not like I want to stay, you know that right? You if anyone should know; I detest this place."

GLaDOS's two underlings had now finished carrying the wounded human next to the lift. They had moved very slowly and very carefully trying to avoid causing the poor girl any more pain than she was already forced to endure each passing second. Chell appreciated their efforts, but unfortunately this was not a good time for her to voice her gratitude. The robots were now looking at their boss, clearly waiting for a confirmation whether or not to place the human on the elevator for transportation to the world above ground.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm," GLaDOS's half-human, half-robotic voice rang in the chamber like an extended note. "Oh, fine. But I'm only consenting to this as a final farewell favor to Caroline, even though she has been gone for a while now. This is something she would have wanted. If you make me regret this decision in any way you are as good as dead. Keep that in mind." She now directed her words to the testing partners still holding Chell. "Take her to the nearest room equipped for treating humans and check her status. Also, give her something for the pain and wait for further instructions once you are done."

With that the bots headed out of the main chamber into the seemingly endless corridors of Aperture Science. Chell could feel the exhaustion she had been holding back starting to overwhelm her now that she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, and for the first time during her stay in this computer-aided enrichment center, she let the exhaustion win. Her consciousness started to fade rapidly and she closed her eyes welcoming the state of oblivion. She felt like she could sleep for an eternity. Or two.

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**A/N: I was inspired to write fan fiction by the very first Portal fanfic I ever read but the origin of this story dates all the way back to the day Portal 2 came out and when I went to bed that night after beating the single player portion of it. I basically just wondered what if Chell had been hurt in the confrontation with Wheatley and was unable to leave Aperture. Imagining being Chell in that situation was an incredibly intense experience but I never really figured out how the story would continue – not until I started reading Portal fan fiction, that is.**

**This story is more personal to me than my other stories so it feels good to come back to it after what already feels like a lifetime. Like I said the next four chapters are already done (well I need to check them for grammar and perhaps polish them a little, but that'll only take an evening per chapter), so even though I said I'd be releasing them a few weeks apart I might upload some of them earlier than planned depending on how much**** interest there seems to be in this story.**

******And as a final note: yes, if I remember correctly Chell is already on an elevator when she comes to after being pulled from space but please forgive my past self for taking small liberties with that.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for the warm response so far. I actually only spent a day on writing each of the first four chapters and two days on the fifth, which could hardly be any further from how I work nowadays. Therefore I'm glad that so many of you seem to have deemed the first chapter to have been worth your time. I had no idea how to write fiction when I first began working on this story ****– not that I'm necessarily currently that much better off, LOL ****– but I was very enthusiastic and I think that helped make up for my lack of experience.**

**I'm reading these chapters one at a time right before I finalize them for uploading and write my author notes. This way I get to kind of experience each chapter with you and if I have something interesting to say about it this way my comments will be as fresh as they possibly can.**

**But enough about that! You wanted chapter two, so here it is.**

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About one and a half eternities later, or so Chell estimated, she woke up. She found that she'd been laid down on some kind of table that had probably been used by Aperture's doctors back in the day to examine and treat patients; before GLaDOS murdered everyone with deadly neurotoxin. The girl turned her head around a bit to get a better look at the room. It was rectangular like most rooms in the enormous underground facility, but not a perfect square as the room seemed to be slightly longer in one direction. This observation came as a small but nonetheless welcome relief to the former test subject who had already seen enough squares and cubes to last a lifetime.

There was another thing that bothered her about the room, however: the color scheme. The ceiling? Aperture white. Walls? Aperture white. Even the floor was white. _"At least I have lots of portal-accepting surfaces available,"_ Chell thought. But then she realized she no longer had her trusty portal gun with her and the thought made her feel even more lonely in this already empty room.

The treatment table was placed right in the middle of the room and all the medical equipment lay neatly on numerous tables which hugged the walls. One of the walls was almost completely covered by cabinets containing various medicine bottles and other necessary items one would expect to see in a medical facility. A single door led in and out of the room and it seemed to Chell like it was one of those automatically opening and closing ones. On the wall next to the door was a reasonably large monitor screen which appeared to be currently switched off. The most obvious thing in the room, though, was the red-eyed camera which had been looking directly at the wounded girl this whole time.

_"She probably hasn't taken her eyes – or eye – off me even for a second,"_ Chell suspected, turning her attention from the room to her own body. The burned areas of her skin were now covered by bandages and there was a cast over her right leg. She pondered if she should try to move her legs and after giving it some thought the girl decided to give it a shot. She immediately came to regret her decision for the pain almost made her black out again. Thankfully the feeling also went away almost as quickly as it had appeared.

Chell made a mental note to not try anything like that again in the near future. The unpleasant experience had however made her realize that something had been missing while she was inspecting the room, and now she understood it was the immense pain she had been feeling earlier in GLaDOS's chamber. The pain was actually still there, but it had been subdued and was currently barely even noticeable. On the other hand Chell's whole body felt quite numb but she accepted it as a trade-off for the immense agony she had been forced to endure earlier. _"What did they give me anyway, horse tranquilizers? Aperture Science we-give-ridiculous-names-to-things pills? –Something Wheatley developed?"_ she wondered._ "Where did that last thought even come from? It's not like Wheatley actually ever invented anything; Frankenturrets don't count."_

But now that the girl had started thinking about Wheatley, her thoughts started to center around that foolish but still so likable blue-eyed friend of hers. Yes, she still thought of him as a friend even after he had tried to kill her numerous times. In her heart Chell wanted to believe that Wheatley hadn't wanted things to turn out the way they did. She suspected that GLaDOS's body and all the power that came with it had been simply too much for the poor intelligence dampening sphere to handle and that it had corrupted the core's judgement. _"I wonder if he regrets what happened. Hopefully he understands I don't blame him,"_ Chell thought as she closed her eyes craving some more rest.

Her attempt was however interrupted by the sound of the monitor turning on followed by a familiar voice flooding the room from concealed speakers placed in unknown locations around the room.

"You sleep an awful lot, you know. I have already resumed working on the damage you caused when you killed me. I'm not even going to touch the calamity caused by that moron at this point – it can wait till I'm done with this, which might take several weeks by the looks of things."

A video feed showing GLaDOS's huge metallic face with her glowing yellow optic dead centered had appeared on the monitor. It reminded Chell of being forced to solve Wheatley's insane tests while being constantly eyeballed by an image of him shown on one of those huge monitors he had installed all over the place. The surfaced memory gave the brunette a little shiver and she pushed it away from her mind.

"Sensors in that room indicated to me that you are awake so I'm here to inform you about your current medical condition." GLaDOS explained. "You should be thankful that I'm taking this time off to bring you up to speed when there is so much work to be done. I would have made the bots do this for me, but as you may have noticed they cannot speak, and are therefore unqualified for this task."

Chell lay silent on the table wondering if the AI meant all the cold things she said, or if she was trying to cover up the fact that she had become slightly less sinister after she had discovered the voice of her own conscience. Right after they had defeated Wheatley she had sounded almost like a human and even called Chell her best friend.

However, all of that was before she deleted Caroline from her brain. After that she had returned to being more like her old self again. Deep down she was different though; Chell could feel it. Furthermore the girl wasn't even convinced Caroline was gone, not completely at least. She had been an integral part of GLaDOS, right? So can you just wipe a huge part of your brain and remain the same person? Chell didn't think so. GLaDOS seemed to have gone from being her "lovely" self with the freshly rediscovered influence of Caroline's brain-mapped mind accompanied by the AI's own newfound conscience, to just her and her conscience. Chell deduced from this that GLaDOS must have only suppressed the part of her that was Caroline, and she believed Caroline would continue to be a positive influence on the AI even if her voice had been weakened. If Aperture's late CEO's secretary was truly gone, GLaDOS should have ended up having a largely altered persona, which was not the case.

The supercomputer had probably used the announcer's voice to say that Caroline had been deleted, instead of just doing it herself, because she thought the girl might think that the announcer was incapable of lying. In actuality Chell was convinced that GLaDOS could make it say whatever she wanted. Pleased that she had possibly figured out something about the queen of Aperture, Chell directed her full attention to what said queen had to say about her former test subject's condition.

"Blue and Orange performed necessary scans to check for broken bones, internal bleeding and possible neurological damage among other things. Your X-ray images show that your right leg is fractured in two places. Based on my analysis this probably happened when you landed after the Stalemate Resolution Button blew up. I'd advice you to stay off your feet for at least a couple of weeks. After that you can try walking short distances with the help of crutches. Also, there might be a small hairline fracture on your left leg as well, but believe it or not I don't have a degree in human physiology, so I can't say for sure. Anyway, even if you do it should be a minor concern and heal much more quickly than your other leg. Have you understood everything so far? I don't like explaining things more than once."

"Broken leg, gotcha. No degrees, noted."

"No degree in human physiology," GLaDOS rectified. "However, when the humans were still around I did file a request to be allowed to complete several degrees both in the areas of mathematics and physics, but those bastards just laughed at me and told me machines couldn't do such things. They didn't laugh for long once I started flooding the facility with neurotoxin. Although they managed to stop me that time, several of them got what they deserved. And we both know what happened to them all in the end."

"…Right," Chell replied uneasily.

"Aah, revenge is such a sweet thing, don't you agree? Anyway, that's enough reminiscing. Back to the task at hand. You'll be glad to hear that you don't appear to be suffering from any internal bleeding, nor does there seem to be any neurological damage, although the results of your CAT scan were inconclusive and there's a small chance that you have serious brain damage."

"I feel fine."

"It doesn't really matter what you say because I don't trust you to not lie about this. And in any case, if you do have brain damage there's nothing I can do about it. Let's just move on to talking about your burns, shall we? The bots inspected them using their optics so their findings might not be the most accurate, but they should suffice nonetheless. You should also take note that, unlike me, they don't have access to a vast depository of information about humans, so their knowledge about human biology is much more limited. Blue and Orange estimate that at least 80% of your burns should heal completely given enough time and proper treatment. They have already tented to all of your burns with burn ointment and bandages as you might have already noticed. In the following days they will apply additional ointment and change your bandages when deemed necessary."

"What about the other 20% of my burns?" Chell asked somewhat hesitantly, unsure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"According to the report I received, 15% in other words three fourths of those more serious burns have a 65% probability of healing completely. Those that don't fully heal will most likely remain sensitive and differ in color from the areas that surround them for the remainder of your life."

"Those figures sound awfully precise after all that you said about the robots," the brunette pointed out. For the moment she was trying to avoid thinking too much about what GLaDOS had just said.

"I was talking in relative terms. To a human like you the numbers might sound reasonably accurate, and compared to the observations any human could have made using just their naked eyes, they are. Earlier I was merely pointing out that under different circumstances it could have been easy to get more precise results."

"OK, I think I understand."

"Do you?"

Chell didn't bother to reply. When this became apparent to the AI, she continued. "Lastly there's the last 5%, which have a zero or close to zero chance of healing and will probably give you problems daily."

This was what Chell had been afraid of. At least she was alive, but now she was going to be reminded of Wheatley's little trap every time she took a hot shower or possibly even every time she changed her clothes.

GLaDOS noticed the sad expression that had appeared on the girl's face and seemed to be now contemplating something.

"What is it? Is there more bad news?" Chell demanded to know, dreading the answer.

"No, not exactly."

"What is it then? There's obviously something on your mind."

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeell," the AI began, delaying her response, "I might be able to design a machine that can grow skin based on a skin sample taken from you, and once we have enough skin we could perform a skin replacement procedure. All this would take some time though."

Chell would have shot up from the table and thrown her hands in the air if she hadn't known better. Instead she had to settle for letting out a small cry of joy and smiling.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier? You made me worry when there was no need to be worried."

"I… wasn't sure if I wanted to go to the length of helping you with something which is none of my concern."

"Why did you decide to help me then?"

The question made GLaDOS turn her gaze away from Chell's face and she stayed silent. Chell gave the AI some time, but when the silence started to feel very awkward, she decided to let the topic go. While pondering how to get the conversation going again, she heard her stomach growling.

"Do you have anything to eat?" the former test subject inquired. "While I've been in Aperture I've only eaten a couple of cans of beans I found and that's it."

GLaDOS let out a long sigh. "I should have known food would be mentioned sooner of later. Blue will bring you water and a warm meal shortly. I will also send Orange to acquire new garments for you. It might prove to be difficult, but I'm sure we have at least one set of clothing that's the right size for you."

Chell had been expecting at least one comment about her weight and GLaDOS did not disappoint her. The girl was absolutely certain that she had lost at least a couple of pounds during her suspension in the relaxation center, contrary to GLaDOS's claims, but she wasn't going to give the computer the satisfaction of luring her to argue about the subject.

"I assume you don't want any beans?" the AI continued.

"Absolutely no beans of any kind if you can help it."

"Blue will be informed of your wish. I suggest you rest now. Blue will wake you up when he brings you your meal."

"I'd appreciate that…" Chell murmured with her eyes already half-closed, not hesitating to follow GLaDOS's advice. Her ears barely registered the AI's voice saying goodbye to her followed by the monitor turning off. After that the girl was already fast asleep.

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**A/N: Chapter one actually surprised me by being better than I had expected. I think I might've done some tweaking to it after I finished it, because it felt more polished than this chapter before I spent a little time finalizing it. ****Contrary to my experience with the first chapter, I was initially a bit disappointed with this one, but after reading it for a second time while spellchecking it my impressions grew more positive. I think my expectations might have been a bit too high, even though I knew this was a relatively simple chapter. I hope you found it at least adequate.**

**Since I haven't mentioned this before, I'm not going to make any major alterations to these first five chapters, only some spellchecking and perhaps small improvements to word choices and so on. It is my intention to try to stay true to the story I began writing a year ago and once I get to working on the new chapters I'll at least try to match my writing to the older chapters, but if I see ways to improve the reading experience I definitely value that over trying to imitate my past self's writing style.**

**The next chapter should come out either two or three weeks from now depending on what I decide. I hope it hasn't been too weird to read me talk about a story I wrote but can't quite remember every single detail about. See you in the next chapter! Hopefully!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Despite still being in its infancy this story has grown in popularity faster than I had dared to expect. I'm interested to see what the situation is by the time we reach the last chapter. Speaking of the ending, I normally have enormous difficulties coming up with a way to end a story but this story is one of the rare exceptions. The ending started out as nothing more than a scene which I played around with in my mind and thought I'd never actually include in the story because it simply didn't seem like it would fit in with the rest of the story and its tone seemed too dissimilar as well. I'm glad I continued fooling around with what I considered to be a silly idea, for once I reached a certain point, a moment of clarity hit me and I realized I'd just come up with a fitting way to end the story.**

**But we are still far from you guys getting to actually read the finale (people reading this way in the future and the occasional time travellers being the notable exceptions, of course). Enjoy chapter three in the meantime.**

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The shorter and more rounder robot GLaDOS had simply referred to as Blue had come into the room some time later carrying a food tray and a half-liter bottle of water which boasted Aperture's logo on its label. He helped Chell, who could hardly move on her own, with her eating. As promised, the meal didn't contain any beans and tasted surprisingly good for something that had probably only required heating to prepare it and had been in storage for god knows how many years. Chell suspected that Aperture must have come up with some sort of advanced method for storing food before GLaDOS got rid of everyone, otherwise all of the food should have been inedible by now, at least according to the girl's own logic.

Orange, the taller and skinnier one, had arrived later that day carrying a stack consisting of various pieces of clothing for Chell to try on. The girl obviously couldn't manage alone, so the robot helped her find the right size for her new white tank top, dark gray pants and white socks. She was allowed to have several of each so that she would have spares. There had also been new undergarments for her, but she had politely refused to try them on, insisting on doing it by herself once she felt better. The orange-colored robot had seemed to understand and left the room after that having completed her assignment. She had taken Chell's trusty long fall boots with her leaving a pair of ordinary walking shoes in their place, but the girl hadn't protested because the machine was obviously just following orders.

During the next couple of weeks Chell had to rely on the friendly bots' help to complete most of her small daily activities. Taking a shower was unfortunately a no-go in her condition, so instead she had to settle for the robots cleaning the non-bandaged areas of her skin with wet sponges. As sitting was also impossible and using the toilet a daily necessity, Chell had feared that the situation would turn extremely uncomfortable for her, but to her relief her two mechanical friends had been most considerate and respectful. Together they devised a way for her to do what she needed to while retaining her dignity in the process. Still the experience was something she would have preferred to have had wiped from her brain for good.

Luckily after a week Chell was able to sit without being in too much pain which allowed her to use the toilet on her own once more. She had to be carried there by the robots, but it still felt like a huge victory and it cut the number of awkward daily moments between her and the droids dramatically. After having spent quite a lot of time with them, Chell couldn't help but wonder if the robots, who had been so nice to her and whose behavior resembled in many ways that of humans', were self-aware like GLaDOS. Because they couldn't speak Chell couldn't be sure if that was the case or not.

The supercomputer had been in contact with her typically once a day to inquire about her progress, but they hardly ever exchanged more than a few words. Apparently the AI was dedicating most of her time to repairing the facility, but that was about all she had to say to Chell. Not that the girl had been in the mood to talk to her anyway. She did however have Orange bring Chell a pair of crutches once another week had passed so that the girl could start moving short distances on her own. This gave Chell the opportunity to finally get out of the room where she had spent the last two weeks of her life bored out of her mind.

During her first few days with the crutches Chell didn't wander much farther than to either end of the corridor outside her room and back, but as she got used to moving around with them and started to gain some of her strength back, she began exploring the surrounding area slowly room by room. She had been half expecting to be moved to a room better suited for staying in by this point, but since she hadn't seen a single bed that was still in good condition in Aperture she wasn't surprised that the medical room continued to be where she spent her nights. She had gotten somewhat used to sleeping on the treatment table, but it was barely more comfortable than sleeping on the floor, or so she imagined, so she had decided that once she no longer needed the crutches she'd improvise herself a better bed from things that were lying around Aperture.

After roaming around the empty hallways for a couple of days, that too started to bore Chell, so she decided to ask one of the robots to guide her to GLaDOS's main chamber where she'd seen a bunch of computer terminals the last time she was there. The supercomputer had been slightly surprised to see the human walk into her lair, but she was willing to interrupt whatever she had been doing and listen to what Chell had to say. The human's request was to gain access to a terminal so that she would have something to read while she was recovering. At first GLaDOS had been reluctant, but finally she granted the girl limited access to several non-classified documents concerning Aperture Science's history along with some old newspapers that were in GLaDOS's databanks in digitized form. She had only picked files from the 20th century, but it didn't matter to Chell; she was just happy to finally have something to do.

* * *

"Why do some of these events sound so familiar to me when I see their name mentioned, but then when I try to recall any of the details without reading the actual article I get nothing or just fuzzy images that make no sense?" Chell asked one evening after having gone through probably hundreds of old newspapers during the last couple of days. "I am sure that I know at least something about these events, terms and people mentioned but it's all just a big blur. And it's not just that; I can't remember anything about my own life before waking up here in Aperture."

She had never before admitted to the AI that she had memory loss, but judging from some of the comments the computer had made she at least suspected it. Based on this, Chell deduced that she had more to gain than lose by finally bringing this topic to the table.

"It probably means that you do have brain damage from being in suspension for too long," GLaDOS replied in her normal calm manner.

"But it was already like this when I started testing for the first time."

"Then perhaps you were already brain damaged when you were taken into the Enrichment Center, although there is no mention of brain damage in your file. What **do** you remember about yourself?"

"I remember my first name and… and that's about it."

"Nothing else? Not even your last name?"

"Nope. What is my last name anyway? And what else is in that file? I need to know."

"I'm sorry, but I cannot disclose any information from your personal record to you."

"Why the hell not? It's **my** file, and you already told me that there's no mention of brain damage in my record so obviously you can tell me whatever you want."

"The contract you signed when you entered the testing program states that you are not privileged to view any of the information Aperture Science has gathered about your background. The same applies to all data collected during testing. Your medical record is the only exception, as the Enrichment Center cares about the wellbeing of its test subjects and some of that data might be vital to their success."

"That's such bullshit! I don't even remember signing a damn contract!"

"It says right here in your contract that losing your memory does not release you from your contract."

"Come on! Everyone in Aperture is dead. Can't you just tell me something? Anything would do."

"Even though I have free will that is one of the very few things I cannot do. The scientists hardwired my systems so that I am unable to reveal certain information about test subjects to themselves. Even if that was not the case I don't think I would break the contract to help you. A contract is a contract. What's the point in making one if no one respects it?"

"I see… But what about all that talk about me being adopted?"

"Pure speculation on my part. You may or may not be adopted. I wasn't actually talking based on your profile because I'm not allowed to do that."

"About this contract I supposedly signed… Am I still a test subject according to it?"

"No. Your commitment ended when you finished your first round of testing."

"So since then I've no longer been an official test subject?"

"Correct."

"That didn't stop you from making me continue testing when Wheatley woke you up in his stupidity, did it?"

"Don't ever mention that imbecile's name to me!" GLaDOS yelled suddenly, her voice full of rage. "But to answer your question, you didn't really expect me to just let you go, did you?" she then continued in a low, perfectly collected voice.

"But you are letting me go once I can walk again?" The question wasn't easy to voice, but Chell desperately longed for some form of additional assurance that GLaDOS was going to keep her promise.

"It's best for one of both of us."

Chell didn't know what to respond to that, so she decided to change the topic. "I think we've talked enough about me for one day. Mind if we talk about something else?"

"Not at all. What would you like to talk about?"

"I'm not disturbing your work, am I?"

"Don't be so ridiculous. While talking to you does take my attention away from things I could be doing, I'm still able to multitask quite efficiently. Throughout our conversation I've been performing several tasks that don't require my utmost concentration. And naturally I'm also in charge of all the smaller aspects that are necessary to keep this facility running properly, but those I can handle unconsciously without even thinking about them."

"OK, I just wanted to make sure I'm not bothering you. Is there anything you wanted to ask me, because don't have anything specific on my mind right now."

"We could talk about your second favorite subject: food. Have you found the meals acceptable? The potatoes are from our own crop, you know."

"Yes the food is actually surprisingly good and the robots have never brought me two identical meal in a row, so I have no complaints. I can't say that I remember eating anything that tasted better, actually, but I seriously hope that's because of my amnesia. But are you seriously telling me that you are using those huge potatoes that grow in Aperture?"

"Indeed we are. Those accursed things have overgrown several sections of the labs and I haven't had the time to trace where they even originate from. As long as you are here we might as well put them to some use."

A faint smile appeared on Chell's lips. "I think I know where they come from."

"Oh, do tell."

"Nah, I think I'll keep it a secret. It's more fun that way."

"Fine. It's not like I'd have much use for that information anyway. I don't think it would help me get rid of those things any faster."

Chell let out a long yawn. It made her realize that she was a lot more tired than she'd thought. "I think I'll head to bed now. Thank you for keeping me company. Sleep well. …Or do you ever sleep? I don't know how it all works with you."

"Ah sleep, your third favorite subject. I think we've now covered pretty much all the significant aspects of your life." GLaDOS's love for sarcastic comments seemed to be as strong as always, but Chell didn't let it bother her. "If you _really_ want to know, I guess I could tell you. I do spend a couple of hours each day in sleep mode to clear my thoughts and refresh my mind. During that time my data cache is cleared and my hardware is allowed to cool down. This does not affect the normal operation of the facility. And before you ask, no, I don't dream."

"That's interesting to know. Well like I said, goodnight and sleep well."

GLaDOS didn't say goodnight to Chell in return, but the girl didn't mind because she thought that this might have been the most civilized conversation they'd had yet. That made her think about where their relationship stood while she headed back toward her room. Could there ever be a time they could both trust each other to not want to kill the other? Chell didn't know the answer. She wasn't currently planning to murder the AI even though she had tried to kill the girl several times in the past. Still, she wouldn't hesitate to kill the AI if she tried to snuff her. Chell honestly hoped it would never come to that. The scenario was unlikely though, because she would be leaving Aperture Science for good in a couple of weeks. Surely they could get along until then.

Thoughts of finally starting her life anew began to fill Chell's mind as she slowly made her way through the long and silent corridors of Aperture. When she finally arrived at the door that had become so familiar to her during these past few weeks, her head was full of colorful images about the future. Holding onto those hopes and dreams she entered her room, lay down and turned off the lights hoping the days would go by much faster.

* * *

**A/N: And there you have it. Hope you liked it. I was actually expecting a short scene which didn't make an appearance so my memory must've failed me and it's likely actually part of the next chapter.**

**When I originally started writing the story I decided to refer to ATLAS and P-body with the pronoun "it", but at some point I changed my mind and switched to "he" and "she" respectively. I think the only reason for this was that it simply felt _weird_ for me to write dialogue where they were referred to as "it". Using the word outside dialogue didn't bother me in the least. The reason I'm mentioning this is that when I started spellchecking this chapter it still used "it" which confused me a little at a couple of points.**

**I've actually been sick for several days now and didn't have the foresight to go over this chapter a week in advance, but I didn't let that stop me from releasing the chapter when I had intended. I've done my best, but my mind simply isn't at its sharpest right now, so if there are more grammatical errors left than typically in my stories, I apologize for that.**

**One last thing. Those who are following Competitive Testing Initiative will likely be interested to know that the third chapter is by my approximation only a few hundred words away from completion but will still require a couple of weeks of additional work after that before it's ready for uploading. Unless I find myself strapped for time, I'm aiming to get it out by the end of the month; perhaps even at the same time as the fourth chapter for this story.**

**Stay tuned. ;D**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: The weeks go past so quickly. We're at chapter four already? Time really flies. This time around I don't really have all that much I could say before you've read the chapter and only wanted to say hi before we get started, so I won't delay you any more than this. See you at the end.**

* * *

GLaDOS had watched the human leave her chamber and was now deep in thought. Chell had started to act more casually when dealing with the her, and she didn't like it one bit. The only reason she was agreeing to engage in conversation with the girl instead of just ignoring her was her voice. GLaDOS didn't know what it was about her voice, but hearing it made her feel good. Not even close to the same extent as testing euphoria back in the day before she developed a tolerance for it, but it elevated her mood just enough to make the working time that was wasted while talking to the human seem worth it.

The supercomputer didn't know if the effect was related to not hearing humans speak for so long or if there was something special about the former test subject's voice, but regardless she would have preferred to have the girl either dead or gone from the facility. She had tried to make herself kill the human when she'd said she was too wounded to leave the enrichment center, but she just couldn't bring herself to break her word right after saying the girl could have her freedom. Every silicon chip in her brain had been shouting at her to kill Chell and get it over with; she had done the exact opposite knowing she would regret the decision.

_"Me and my stupid conscience! Why couldn't it just return to where the hell it came from when I got rid of Caroline?"_ she thought frustrated out of her mind. Every second that passed while she was forced to wait for that murdering lunatic to recover felt like torture. Even though she was an AI, patience had never been one of GLaDOS's strong suites. On a couple of nights she had been monitoring the video feed from Chell's room watching the girl sleep. She had found herself thinking about the fact how easy it would be to just fill the room with neurotoxin and get rid of the nuisance once and for all, just to realize that she didn't have any neurotoxin left. She'd had a couple of spare tanks in storage in case of emergencies, but the moron had used them all up trying to defend himself, and with the neurotoxin generator gone there was no way for her to make more.

GLaDOS had considered sending either Blue or Orange to eliminate the girl while she was sleeping, but she had decided she wasn't willing to risk the girl waking up and going on a killing spree in her facility. She was no longer in possession of a portal device but that didn't mean she wasn't dangerous. GLaDOS had underestimated the girl more than once in the past, she wasn't going to repeat that mistake ever again.

* * *

When Chell woke up the next morning she checked her watch to see what time it was. She wasn't surprised to see that it was almost exactly 6:00 a.m. Her sleeping pattern had been very consistent throughout her stay in Aperture, and regardless of the time she went to bed she seemed to wake up at around the same time every morning.

The watch was a gift from GLaDOS and to Chell's satisfaction it wasn't one of those digital watches she disliked. Its design was quite minimalistic and the color was naturally glossy Aperture white, same as the turrets. Aperture's logo was imprinted on the dial and apparently it was light-powered so she would never have to worry about it dying on her. It even had an alarm function, but the sound was the same the turrets made when they acquired a target, so Chell had no intentions of ever using it to avoid reliving any unpleasant memories.

GLaDOS had told her that not being able to tell the time of day when spending extended periods of time underground could have a negative impact on the human psyche. In order to prevent that she had adjusted the facility's lighting to automatically be at its brightest at noon, gradually dim towards midnight, and then slowly return back to its original state. When Chell told the computer she thought that the watch would probably have been enough, GLaDOS had just said that it had taken her less time to reprogram the lights than it took her to explain to Chell what she had done. After that last comment Chell didn't know whether to feel thankful or not – but she did like the watch.

Deciding to go for a morning walk, the girl grabbed her crutches and headed out the door. Although she liked to eat, Chell could never stomach anything right after waking up, therefore she had told the robots to bring her breakfast to her at around eight o'clock. This meant that she had a couple of hours to kill and because she was feeling up to it the brunette decided to push herself a bit and go for a full one hour long stroll.

* * *

After wandering for about half an hour Chell found herself in a part of the enrichment center she had never seen before. Attempting to find a suitable place where she could sit down and rest for a moment, she stumbled upon a quite badly damaged room. The back half of the room was missing and so was most of the ceiling. Assessing the room to be safe to enter, Chell stepped inside and sat down in one of the chairs that were scattered around the room. Once upon a time the room had served as a dining hall, but now all that was left of it were a bunch of tables and chairs, some broken dishes on the floor, and a gaping hole at the back of the room. The counters where they'd served the food had probably been located in the part of the hall that was now somewhere down at the bottom of the abandoned salt mine. Not that Chell was hungry yet – or that desperate.

She opened a water bottle she had brought with her and took a swig. The water wasn't cold but it was still refreshing. Looking up Chell could see the facility extend all the way to ground level consisting of countless rooms and other more complicated structures connected by a complex web of intersecting corridors and walkways. The sheer magnitude of the place never ceased to amaze the girl, who couldn't fathom how such a place could possibly exist. Sometimes she wondered if all of this was just a dream or some kind of hallucination. The absurdity of this whole situation, her inability to remember anything about her past, and even the fact that she was miraculously still alive, seemed to support her suspicion. Who knows, maybe she was already dead and this was the afterlife.

Chell got back on her feet and made her way to the far edge of the room. She looked down into the abyss thinking _"If I jumped I could end it all right here, right now. From this height it would surely be an instant death…"_ But she wasn't going to do it. She wasn't suicidal, quite the opposite actually: she was a survivor. _"So what if this isn't real. I'm still not going to just give up. And so what if I don't have a past. That doesn't mean I can't have a future. I just need to find my place in this world. Right now I don't belong anywhere and I don't have a place I can call home. That has to change before I can be happy."_ She looked up once more full of newfound confidence. From between all the crisscrossing parts of Aperture Science Chell could see a tiny glimpse of the morning sky.

_"Some part of whatever they've built on the surface must have collapsed at some point during the time GLaDOS was out of commission. Probably due to an earthquake, a structurally weakened support structure, or both,"_ she figured. It was doubtful that this place was ever meant to be visible from the surface. _"That's the outside world. I was probably born somewhere out there, although I can't even remember what it's like to walk on the surface and have the sunlight hit your face."_

Glancing at her watch Chell thought that it was probably time for her to start heading back to her room. She threw the water bottle which was now empty into the dark void below her and tried to listen for any kind of sound, but she couldn't hear even an echo. Slightly disappointed she turned around and exited the room.

While Chell was moving down the hallway she started wondering what year it was. When she had been woken from suspension for the first time the announcer had said that she had been asleep for 40 days, but the next time she woke up it seemed like years, decades or even centuries had gone by. The whole place had looked really run down; like shit to be honest. The system that was supposed to keep track of how long she had been in suspension seemed to have lost track a _looong_ time ago. Even if she knew how long she'd been in the relaxation center, she still didn't know what year it had been when she first woke up in her relaxation vault.

Wheatley had said that there were ten thousand other test subject in the center Chell was kept at and it was entirely possible that there were numerous other relaxation centers around the underground facility. That meant that the testing queue had probably been quite goddamn long. GLaDOS seemed to have monitored all the tests herself talking directly to the test subjects, so it was unlikely she tested more than one person at a time. The original round of test chambers had taken Chell maybe two hours to complete. She considered herself to be a quick learner, so based on that she estimated that most people would have taken at least one or two hours more to complete the gauntlet. If all of the test subjects had been as confused as she was, a lot of them probably even broke down during testing and were unable to continue, dying a slow and pitiful death while the AI watched.

The mere thought made Chell shiver. She wasn't very good with numbers, but after giving it some thought she deduced that it would have probably taken GLaDOS close to five years to go through ten thousand test subjects. If there were for example ten relaxation centers which could all store ten thousand test subjects, then the testing queue could very well have been at least 50 years long! And when Chell thought about the size of this enormous underground complex it didn't seem far-fetched to think that the total number of relaxation centers might have once been far greater than ten. It saddened the girl to think that all the other people in storage had deceased when the emergency power ran out.

Hoping that those people were now in a better place Chell directed her thoughts back to what year it was. It seemed safe to assume that at least a couple centuries had passed from the unknown date when she'd been committed to the testing queue. She couldn't say why, but Chell had an awful feeling in her gut that something horrible had happened to humanity while she had been down here. Either it had nearly or completely destroyed itself, or some other disaster had happened; Chell was sure of it.

Before she had time to react, disturbing and violent images started to flash in Chell's mind. None of them represented anything comprehensible and together they were like a powerful whirlwind of negative emotions. The young woman was filled with extremely powerful feelings of fear and sorrow and it made her feel very nauseated. As she tried to take a step with the crutches a sudden sharp pain struck her head making her lose balance and come crashing on the floor. The moment she hit the ground the ache in her head was replaced by pain she felt from the impact.

While lying on the floor Chell tried to convince herself otherwise, but finally she was forced to admit that those things that had flooded her mind were her own repressed worst fears, not some sort of external attack against her like she would have liked to believe. Everything she had been put through in Aperture had left her psyche in shreds and some of the scars might never fully heal. In her head she had been building a dream of finding a house on the surface, meeting people, becoming part of society, maybe even finding someone and starting a family. But all of that was just an attempt to hide the fact that she was scared of facing the surface world, scared of change. Whatever was up there was going to be much more complicated than things down here. All she knew about survival depended on the use of portals and that wouldn't be of any use outside the enrichment center.

The truth was she just wasn't ready to leave. Her mind would definitely need more time to heal than her body. What made matters worse was the fact that there was no one in Aperture she could talk to about these things. She'd have to deal with all of her problems on her own and that would take time. GLaDOS had been able to help her with her physical injuries, but she wasn't qualified to help humans with matters involving the mind. Only another human could help Chell with the things she was dealing with, but she wasn't sure if anyone who hadn't been through what she'd experienced could truly relate to her situation. As sad as it might sound, the big and mostly empty enrichment center had slowly started to feel less threatening – almost safe even. Chell liked the quiet. One day she would have to face the outside world, regardless of what was out there, but she wasn't sure when that would be.

Back when GLaDOS was letting her go, getting out of this facility had been everything Chell could thing about, but during her recovery she had had too much time to process things. The rush of emotions that had caused her to fall to the floor had already tried to surface a couple of times before, but this time it caught her off guard. If her mind was in this kind of state just because of fearing the worst, perhaps it had been for the best that she hadn't taken that elevator up. Her fragile mind might have shattered completely had it turned out that the world humans had once inhabited was no more.

The pain from her fall was slowly fading away. Luckily Chell didn't seem to have injured herself further, but both of her crutches had slid too far for her to reach them. Getting back up would be rather difficult so she started scanning the hallway. Almost every room and corridor in Aperture seemed to have at least one camera in it, and this one was no exception. She spotted a camera and started yelling GLaDOS's name hoping the AI would notice her.

* * *

GLaDOS was in the middle of handling the repairs of auxiliary gel pump station APS-02 in sector G-09B, when one of her automated subroutines flagged one of the countless video feeds from around the facility with a "Mid priority: Possible communication attempt" flag. All of the cameras were equipped with voice-activated microphones, but GLaDOS's subroutines filtered out irrelevant events such as animal noises by dismissing all results that couldn't be identified as speech. Possible communication attempt meant that her name had been mentioned out loud, which was interesting because that could only be Chell and the flagged camera was nowhere near her designated quarters.

The supercomputer brought up the feed in question and found herself looking at her former test subject lying down on the floor shouting her name over and over. She let the girl go on for a couple of minutes before finally opening a channel.

Chell heard the comm system crackle as it was turned on and stopped shouting continuing at normal speaking volume instead. "GLaDOS? Where were you? I've been shouting here for ages."

"I'm terribly busy. I have an entire facility to run if you haven't noticed, so I don't really have time for every call for attention you might have. Anyway, what are you even doing in this part of the enrichment center? And why on earth are you lying on the ground?"

"I fell down," Chell responded simply and tried to force a faint innocent looking smile on her face.

"–You are hopeless. You know that, right? I will send the cooperative testing initiative to assist you."

"The what? – Oh, you meant those two. Tell them I'll be waiting."

"What else would you be doing?" GLaDOS pointed out. "While we are on the subject of you, I may as well let you know that we will be performing your skin replacement treatment tomorrow. The new patches of skin have been grown and I've finished building the necessary tools Blue and Orange will need to complete the procedure."

"We're doing it already? Will it hurt?" Chell asked, but regretted it immediately as the answer might not be to her liking.

"Yes."

"How much?"

"A lot."

Chell started to have serious reservations about the operation; however, GLaDOS still had more to add. "We need to first remove the damaged area of the skin. This requires an incredible amount of precision, so the process is going to take several hours. Attaching the new skin, however, is even more time-consuming. The robots have a steady hand, but their fine motor skills are no match for a human surgeon. Now that I think about it, I doubt very many humans could handle the whole operation while conscious. I suppose there's always the option to put you down under for the duration of the procedure. That might actually make things much easier for the bots. Would you prefer this option?"

"Of course! Why didn't you say so right away? That's what you're supposed to do."

"I just wanted to see your face turn all white for a second. That was fun. But now I have to return to more pressing matters. I hope you enjoy your surgery." Having finished talking with the human GLaDOS turned off the intercom and the hallway fell silent once more.

_"Goddamn AI,"_ Chell cursed the supercomputer and waited for the two humanoid robots to arrive.

* * *

Time didn't seem to move at all while Chell was waiting for assistance to arrive, and when it did finally arrive, she could have sworn hours had gone by even thought in reality it had probably been no more than ten or fifteen minutes. Now back in her room, she headed to the closest corner, slid down on the floor and buried her face in her palms. After just sitting in that position for a couple of minutes she let out a frustrated sigh and looked up at the ceiling shouting "Fuuuuuck!", not caring if anyone could hear her.

_"Why am I so messed up?"_ she asked herself. _"I thought I managed to psych myself up, but then I let my guard down and all the confidence I had tried to build up came down like a house of cards. – Perhaps this is for the best, though. I guess it's better to deal with these issues rather than try to bury them deep inside. If I keep trying to deny that I have problems I might turn into a nutcase. I won't let that happen, not after all that I've been through."_

_"I have to wonder, though, how did I manage to turn such a simple thing as a morning walk into a complete disaster like this?"_

* * *

**A/N: Even without having read chapter five I'm going to come out and say that this chapter is definitely my favorite of the first five, although a lot of that is probably due to how pleased I'm with how it came together. When I began writing the chapter all that I really had planned was that Chell was going to go for a walk; that's it. I can't believe I began working on the chapter with nothing more than that to go on, but somehow I miraculously managed to cook up something I'm really satisfied with.**

**This chapter is actually surprisingly similar in style to how I write currently – more so than the previous chapters I feel – and I find that encouraging since that means I'll hopefully have an easier time creating the rest of the chapters when it is the time for that since I don't have to pay as much attention to trying to stay faithful to the original five chapters as I initially thought.**

**The reason I've been impressed with the amount of traffic this story has had thus far is because I feel that this is the first chapter where this story actually starts gradually showing its colors. I don't mean to hype the coming chapters, I'm just saying that the introductory part of the story is about over.**

**That's it for now. See you in a couple of weeks in chapter five, or if you're reading this in the future probably more like in a couple of seconds.**


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out Chell had no legitimate reason to be nervous about the skin replacement procedure. The two robot buddies arrived a couple of hours after she'd had her breakfast and guided the girl to a room which had been equipped specifically for the surgery. They anesthetized the girl and when she woke up she was back in her room feeling a little groggy but otherwise totally fine. At first the new patches of skin were a bit sensitive and didn't seem to quite match Chell's own skin tone, but after a few days she could take a shower without worries and the color started to blend in. Once a week had gone by the girl could no longer tell where the damaged areas had been, which left her quite impressed; GLaDOS and the robots had done a great job, and she was grateful for it.

It was now two weeks after the operation and Chell had been walking without the cast and the crutches for a couple of days now. She wouldn't dare to attempt running for at least a few more weeks, but it felt great to walk again without a need to use any aids. GLaDOS had made no comment on Chell's recovery, which worried her a little, but not too much. Their agreement was that the brunette could stay until she was capable to leave but she was sure that she could talk GLaDOS into letting her stay until she was mentally prepared to take the plunge. The computer acted like she wanted the girl gone from her compound, but Chell was certain that deep down the AI wished nothing more than to see her former enemy submit to stay. Of course GLaDOS could never openly admit that to Chell let alone _ask_ her to stay, which meant Chell would have to be the active party in this matter.

She had decided to bring the topic up today and get it over with. GLaDOS would likely play hard to get meaning Chell would just have to play along until the AI would give in to her demand. If that required her to kneel down and beg, she was prepared to do it, even though it wouldn't be easy. GLaDOS was going to get a kick out of this but Chell would definitely make the AI pay it all back somehow. There was no doubt about it.

When Chell arrived in GLaDOS's chamber she was surprised to see that Blue and Orange were there as well. On the days Chell came to read articles on the computer terminal GLaDOS was typically there all by herself. It appeared that the robots were swapping one of their mistress' parts for a new one. What the part was supposed to be or do was a mystery to Chell, who didn't frankly even give a damn. She walked right up to the massive supercomputer, but she didn't acknowledge the girl's presence in any way.

"GLaDOS, do you have a moment?" the girl asked, forced to be the one to open the conversation.

"Can't you see that I'm a little busy right now? Blue and Orange are performing maintenance on some of my non-critical mechanical components."

"Does that prevent you from talking?"

"…No."

"So we can talk?"

"Listen, just because– Oh, never mind. What is it you want? This better be important."

GLaDOS sounded irritated, but Chell didn't care. She figured it was entirely possible that the AI might let her have what she wanted just to get her to leave her alone, so perhaps her irritation was even a good thing.

"Well, as you can see I'm feeling a lot better now. I wouldn't say I'm fully healed or anything, but I can now walk on my own and so on. I'm well aware of our agreement, but see the thing is…"

"But the thing is…?" GLaDOS repeated, lifting her head just a little to emulate raising a brow.

"The thing is, I'm just not ready. Back then all I could think about was that I must escape from this place, but now–"

"Nonononono! This is completely unacceptable! I've already allowed you to stay a couple of additional days out of courtesy, but this kind of attempt to stall for time is something I won't stand for."

GLaDOS was absolutely furious and that made the two robots stop what they were doing. Her next words were directed at them. "Grab her and throw her into the elevator. And don't take your time like last time or I'll make you regret it. This farce has gone on long enough."

Both of the bots seemed reluctant to obey the command, but nevertheless they each seized one of Chell's arms and started dragging her toward the lift to the surface. She tried to free herself, but quickly found that resistance was useless against the two beings who were mostly made out of metal and possessed strength far beyond any human.

The situation perplexed Chell. She had expected a tough negotiation, but GLaDOS had hardly even given her a chance to talk. The elevator wasn't very far away and the droids were definitely not treating her as gently as last time, so Chell had no other option but to cut right into the heart of the matter.

"Listen, I know you want me to stay. You're not fooling anyone, so let's cut the crap. Tell me what you wa–"

"Is that what you think? That I want you to stay? You're more delusional than I thought."

"OK, I don't doubt that part of you wants me gone, and I can respect that, but I **know** how you think GLaDOS. You get your kicks out of making me stay in Aperture as long as you can. You just don't want to admit it, but there's no point trying to hi–" This time it wasn't the AI who interrupted Chell mid-sentence. The bots had suddenly stopped and that made the girl instinctively look to see what was the cause. She was surprised to see that they were already in front of the elevator. This meant that there wouldn't be enough time for her to finish her argument, so her only option now was to make it clear that she wasn't buying the AI's bluff, although this aggressive approach was a pretty good tactic on GLaDOS's part to make Chell beg for temporary sanctuary.

"GLaDOS, we both know you're not going to make me leave, so tell your bots to let me go and name your terms. We'll discuss this like civilized people."

"You think I'm lying? Blue, Orange: Throw her in. And don't hold back; make sure she feels it."

The robots didn't move, refusing to comply.

"If you don't do what I say, you will regret it for the rest of your lives. And in case you haven't figured it out yet, you're both robots, meaning you'll live for a very, very long time. So do as I say!"

Blue and Orange who had been looking at GLaDOS turned their gaze back to Chell, who could see what looked like fear in their optics. The robots were clearly afraid of their mistress and were shaking a little. They both gave the young woman a look that seemed to say "I'm sorry" and threw her against the back wall of the elevator. The glass cracked but didn't shatter from the impact. Sharp pain struck Chell and while lying on the floor she reached to feel her back. Her fingers could feel small glass shards sticking out of her flesh and when she brought her hand back in front of her it was glittering red with blood.

Suddenly the elevator doors started closing rapidly, and without even thinking about it Chell extended her leg to prevent them from shutting completely. Excruciating pain shot through her when the doors closed around the limb like the jaws of a beast with much more force she would have imagined possible, making her scream from the top of her lungs. She almost blacked out because of the pain but barely managed to stay conscious. The doors were very thin, meaning all of the pressure was concentrated on a very small area of Chell's leg and thus making the pain immense. She could already see some blood coming out and she knew she wouldn't be able to tolerate the agony for very long.

GLaDOS's hostility had taken her completely by surprise, and now she was starting to panic as the fear of being sent to the surface started to tear through her chest. There wasn't much time, but the pain and anxiety made it almost impossible for Chell to think straight. Obviously she had misjudged GLaDOS's desire to keep her in Aperture. Clearly that was not enough to satisfy the wicked AI. The only other thing she could possibly want was of course testing. Somehow Chell had been naïve enough to think that GLaDOS wouldn't be sadistic enough to make her test again after all that she'd been through. Clearly she had been wrong.

The brunette had no other option than to give the AI what she wanted. "Fine GLaDOS, you win. I'll start testing again and I'll do eight– no, ten-hour days every day of the week. Just open the doors, I can't take this much longer," she told the AI feeling defeated. The pain was starting to be too much for her, so she had raised her offer to ten hours per day just to make sure GLaDOS would accept the offer immediately.

"You still don't understand. This is not a negotiation. I won't open the doors unless you promise to pull your leg back in. Otherwise I will find a way to give the door mechanism enough power to cut your leg right off!"

This was not good. Not good at all. GLaDOS had just refused a voluntary test subject! Chell's body started to tremble uncontrollably. If science wasn't enough there was nothing else Chell could offer the AI. Nothing! No longer able to think straight, the girl started begging not knowing what else to do.

"I'm better than the bots and you know it! Think of all the science!"

"I always think about science. Although Blue and Orange are frustratingly slow at solving tests, I won't allow a brain-damaged lunatic murderer like you to stay in my facility a second longer. Aperture has no place for you."

"P-Please… I'll do anything. …I'll polish your outer shell. Anything you want," Chell managed to say with considerable effort. Her vision was starting to fade and she could barely make out what GLaDOS was saying.

"Like I'd let you touch me with our filthy hands!"

GLaDOS's response sounded like a distant echo to Chell whose head dropped down, her eyes filled with tears because of the pain. There were no longer any coherent thoughts in her head and random words GLaDOS had said kept bouncing in her mind. The whole world felt like it was spinning around her.

_"_… _slow … … … cut … … science … … … … … murderer … … … filthy … … … … Aperture … … you …"_

Just as Chell was about to pass out, the word "Aperture" made her think of old Aperture far below the modern facility. Somehow from that memory a single word emerged in her brain and she shouted it out.

"The bird!"

"What?" GLaDOS asked, confused by her former test subject's sudden outburst.

Brought partially back to her senses by this newfound last hope, Chell continued hastily: "The bird that tried to kill you, the one that's evil. Down in old Aperture. I'll murder it for you. I swear. Just let me go, letmegoletmegoletmegoletmego…" Chell continued repeating her plea in an attempt to stay conscious. Her leg felt like it was about to be cut off any second now even though the doors didn't seem to have sunk that much deeper into her now extremely sore flesh.

To Chell's relief GLaDOS's optic widened the moment she heard the words "bird" and "murder". "You… You would do that for me?" the massive pinnacle of human engineering asked having a hard time processing what she had just heard. She seemed to contemplate the proposal heavily while Chell sat on the floor of the elevator grinding her teeth trying to ignore the pain. Every second that passed seemed longer than the previous and the girl felt like the world was going to end; the situation was that unbearable.

Finally the AI, who had been staring at the floor deep in thought, returned her gaze upon the human, who now looked like she was about to spontaneously explode at any moment, and said, "Fine, I accept your proposal," opening the elevator doors as a confirmation.

Chell let out a long cry which was filled with a mixture of both pain and relief. It took her a few minutes before she dared to attempt getting back on her feet again, and when she did both of GLaDOS's testing robots helped her with both getting up and staying on her feet. Neither of them felt brave enough to look Chell directly in the eyes, but once she was standing again she gave them both a pat on the back to let them know she didn't blame them for valuing their own well-being over hers.

The only fortunate thing about this whole incident, aside from the fact that she was allowed to stay at Aperture, was that the girl had instinctively blocked the doors with her left leg which had been injured far less severely by Wheatley's trap than her right one. Now that she tried to stand on both legs without support from Blue and Orange, it seemed that not only could she do it, but it also didn't feel like the doors had caused a new fracture which made Chell sigh in relief.

Very slowly, step by step, she started to make her way back toward the middle of the chamber where GLaDOS patiently hung almost motionless observing her every move. When Chell was once again within regular talking distance, she stopped and stared into the AI's yellow optic, her leer full of contempt. She had known persuading GLaDOS to let her stay wasn't going to be easy, but she had thought cooperating with the AI to reclaim her facility from Wheatley had at least earned her the right to be treated better than to be hurt the way she'd been. In her foolishness she had almost thought she and GLaDOS were nearly friends even. Clearly she'd been mistaken. The supercomputer before her seemed to feel no guilt for hurting her, for the apology she was expecting didn't seem to be coming.

After staring at the computer in silence for a short while, a sudden surge of pain radiated from Chell's back, forcing her to break eye contact and reach her hand back to attempt to remove some of the glass shards that were still sticking out of her.

Blue and Orange understood what she was trying to do and helped her get rid of all the shards, or at least the ones that were big enough to be clearly visible. She thanked them and turned her attention back to GLaDOS who was evidently waiting for her to say something.

"So… You agree to let me stay? If I kill the bird," Chell inquired.

"Yes. If you murder the bird, and start testing again, **and** clean my body from time to time. Under strict supervision of course."

"Do I test ten hours a day?"

"That is what you promised."

"Every day?"

"Not on Sundays. You will have those off."

"Thanks."

"There's no need to thank me, I'm just following regulations. According to them I have to pay double for work done on Sundays, and because I won't be paying you anything that is slightly problematic. You see, two times zero is still zero and although this is mathematically correct, the resulting zero is not greater than the original zero that was multiplied. This is why I am unable to allow you to test on Sundays. It's simple arithmetics really."

"I see…" Chell answered, although she wasn't quite sure if she followed the computer's logic. She didn't really care though, as long as she didn't have to test every day of the week. Pulling ten hours a day would be enough of a challenge as it was, and she started to regret changing her offer from eight to ten hours at the last second when it didn't even seem to matter in the end. Still, she didn't want to compromise their current agreement, so she would just have to accept the current terms as GLaDOS seemed to be content with them.

"What about your shell? How often do I have to clean it?" the brunette continued.

"Once every two weeks. It shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours. Blue and Orange will be watching you and if you make even one murderous move you won't have time to regret it. That's how fast your life will end."

"Like I could do anything with my bare hands and a bucket of water anyway," Chell murmured in response.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Forget you heard anything."

"I have a perfect memory, you know. I don't just _forget_ things. Perhaps I should replay the audio and boost–"

"That's not necessary," Chell interrupted the AI promptly. "Anyway, I'll head to my room and find some bandages. I'll deal with the bird once I feel up t–"

"Oh, no no no," GLaDOS cut in in return. "You will murder that evil beast right now or the deal is off."

Two floor panels slid aside on Chell's either side and two pedestals rose from the holes to replace them. One was holding a handheld portal device and the other a pair of long fall boots. Both looked brand new or at least like they had never been used before, so it was unlikely Chell had ever used either of these items specifically, but she was happy to see them regardless of what the truth was. What she didn't like however, was the fact that GLaDOS expected her to head right down to the historic parts of Aperture without letting her even treat her wounds first; wounds **she** had caused her.

Angered by the situation Chell felt it necessary to voice her protest. "But I'm wounded! Do you really expect me to–"

"None of your injuries are life-threatening, so you'll live. Now get to it. Grab the portal device and the long fall boots. Blue will help you put those on."

The two robots picked up the extremely valuable pieces of tech and brought them to the young lady. Blue knelt down and held the right shoe in place so that she could just slide her foot into it. Once she'd done so the round robot fastened the boot so that it hugged the lines of her leg perfectly. Chell had missed wearing her long fall boots. They almost felt like an extension of her and never during the time that she'd worn them had they felt uncomfortable even for a fraction of a second. Quite the opposite in fact. With them on walking felt almost effortless and she could run much faster than she had ever managed without the boots. In addition they also seemed to improve the blood flow in her legs.

_"Whoever designed these things was a genius. And they are quite fashionable too,"_ Chell noted, her mood having elevated slightly because she was getting to wear her favorite piece of footwear again.

Savoring the feeling of comfort her right foot was in, Chell slipped her left foot into the other shoe Blue was now offering her. She looked down to watch the robot secure the boot in place and gulped hard when she realized that the boot was tall enough to surround the part of her leg that had been pinned between the elevator doors only moments earlier.

"You've gotta be kidding m– Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" she started saying just to be interrupted by her own scream when Blue tightened the boot very securely around her shin. The pain made her lose balance, but at the last moment she managed to move her right leg to prevent herself from falling over. Blue looked at her frightened but she gave him a slight smile to indicate everything was fine and there was no need to worry.

She waved Orange to hand her the portal gun, which she did. Now finally fully equipped again after several weeks of bed rest Chell felt ready for anything – at least until her leg started hurting again and she had to fall to one knee. After the pain had subsided she stood back up again and gave the waiting GLaDOS a nod to indicate she was ready.

"What's the fastest way back down th–" she started when the floor panels beneath her opened up and she fell into a seemingly bottomless pit.

_"That bitch doesn't waste time,"_ the girl concluded as she fell toward the void.

* * *

**A/N: That was the last of the five chapters I wrote over a year ago. As I've mentioned earlier, from here on the updates are going to be less frequent and much less regular. I'm sorry, but that's just how it goes when I'm trying to keep three stories I love equally alive while trying to work, study and have a personal life as well. I haven't decided what my update schedule is even going to be like regarding this story; the two other stories I have going on will be updated equally, but I'm not sure where "Close to the Edge" falls in all this. I might write it between each update for "Competitive Testing Initiative" and "Laws of Robotics", but that would mean it would be updated at twice the rate as those other two, so who knows what I'll do. Regardless of how I choose to operate, I intend to study these first five chapters a bit more before I ****begin writing the sixth chapter at some point and take a look at some of the sadly a bit sparse notes I made a year ago about the direction I wanted to take the story and what scenes I wanted to include. Some of that is still in my memory, but a lot has to be recreated from almost nothing so I intend to do some planning before I proceed with this story.**

**But to talk a bit about the chapter you just read, I discovered after uploading the text file to this site that it shortens all strings with more than three consecutive dots to just three dots even if you use ellipses. I couldn't come up with a more elegant-looking way to work around this than to use a space after each ellipsis. Hope it didn't bother you too much. I also realized that the first chapter suffered from this truncation without me noticing it. I'm not sure if I'm going to go back and fix that, for it's not that big of a deal, but needless to say I'm a bit frustrated with the site right now.**

**I remember the most difficult part of this chapter being figuring out what else GLaDOS could want from Chell other than testing, and finally after some brainstorming the answer came to me not unlike it came to Chell in the story. I'm really pleased with the solution I came up with, for I feel it manages to stay true to the games, which is important to me, even if fanfiction is kind of a big what-if by its nature.**

**That's all for now, I'll see you at some point with another chapter. That might take some time, so please be patient.**

**Till next time!**


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